It’s looking increasingly likely that Ashley Judd is ready to make a run for the Kentucky Senate seat now held by reptilian Mitch McConnell, one the most despicable do-nothings ever to slither up Capitol Hill. Howard Fineman writes today at HuffPo:
Judd told one close ally that she plans to announce her run for the Democratic nomination for the 2014 race “around Derby” — meaning in early May when the Kentucky Derby brings national attention to Louisville and the Bluegrass State…
“I know she knows she has to declare soon,” said one source, a highly placed elected official who declined to be identified because he was discussing private plans. “She could always change her mind,” he added. “I changed my mind twice before I finally declared. But as of now it is a done deal.” She has discussed her plans, sources say, with former Gov. Wendell H. Ford, the 88-year-old dean of Kentucky Democrats, among others.
Judd was born in California but grew up in Kentucky and attended UK in Lexington. She lives in Nashville now and will need to move back to Lexington before November to meet residency requirements. An avid UK Wildcat basketball fan, Judd is a wildcat herself. Howard Fineman says when asked if she was tough enough to take on McConnell and the GOP national attack machine, Judd reportedly answered, “I have been raped twice, so I think I can handle Mitch McConnell.”
A champion of global women’s rights and an ardent environmentalist, Judd admittedly would start her campaign with more ties in Hollywood than in the old-fashioned courthouses of Kentucky’s myriad 120 (mostly rural) counties.
Some Democrats, here and in Washington, fear that Judd is just the kind of glamorous liberal the GOP loves to run against in Kentucky and across the country. Some are concerned that the GOP will make her candidacy a national cause.
But Judd is smart, feisty and charming, and probably can, as one local here put it, “out-Kentucky and out-country” the Louisville-based, owlishly professorial McConnell in a state where down-home, one-handshake-at-a-time style still matters…
The US Senate is losing 4 or 5 senior Democrats who have announced plans to retire at the end of their current terms, so it’s important to look for ways to restock the blue side of the chamber with fresh ideas. Mitch McConnell is in trouble and he knows it.
The Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, whose leaders were cool to the high-risk but intriguing Judd candidacy, in recent days has taken new polls that show McConnell — never an overwhelming winner despite his lofty status — is more vulnerable to a Judd campaign than originally thought…
Judd is an ardent Obama supporter and progressive on most social issues. She recently announced the end of her marriage to her race-car driver husband, and racy pictures and video from her movie career are plentiful and easy to find on the Internet. She writes movingly and openly about the challenges she faces from her bipolar disorder.
But Judd was born to campaign. A fighter by nature, she has a quick wit and the ability to raise far more money – not to mention engender more free national and local media – than all of McConnell’s past Democratic foes put together.
She is fearless, and would not necessarily lose a bar fight if she got into one, which she is about to do.
I know what many are thinking. Just what we need, more movie stars in Washington D.C. ok, but Ashley Judd happens to be one of those movie stars who has a Master’s Degree in politic and public administration from Harvard.